


forest

by firecube



Category: K (Anime)
Genre: M/M, Oneshot, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 20:55:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5390003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firecube/pseuds/firecube
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This world is too small for Munakata Reisi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	forest

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: K Project and its characters belong to GoRa.

Munakata allows himself to lie back on the soft, cool moss, gazing up at the dense coverings of trees that shields from the sky before shutting his eyes. He doesn’t always adopt such vulnerable positions, but he has had a long week.

He doesn’t really know how this became his and Suoh’s “meeting place” of sorts. He doesn’t even know _why_ they have a meeting place. He’d rather not think about it. They don’t see each other here terribly often anyways. Munakata tries to come here on Saturdays with the vague wish that Suoh will decide to come too. He never really thought about _why_ , deliberately.

But this is indeed a Saturday which Suoh for whatever reason came.

“Hey, you’re hogging the moss.” Suoh nudges Munakata in the side with a scuffed-up steel-toed tennis shoe.

Munakata opens one eye. “My, here I was attempting to enjoy such a peaceful atmosphere when it was completely demolished by such an unsavory presence. Furthermore, there is a large area of moss here of which I am only taking up a small portion of. You are perfectly capable of lying in that moss, or, even more favorably, finding _another_ area of moss away from myself.”

“I only felt an ‘unsavory presence’ the second you opened your mouth. And the ‘small portion’ you’re lying in happens to be the one I want.”

His foot is still pressing into Munakata’s side. “How rude,” he chuckles. “I arrived here before you so therefore it is only justified that I should have first priority in choosing the moss.”

Suoh stretches and yawns like a big, lazy cat. Munakata eyes him thoughtfully before he collapses like a ragdoll flat on his stomach onto the cushioned forest floor, right beside Munakata. He had obviously gotten bored of the argument so just dropped it like that. That was how Suoh was. Stubborn as hell, but only when he wanted to be.

Suoh raises himself up slightly so that he can roll over onto his back. It’s kind-of strange, the both of them relaxing so easily like this.

Munakata, such as he is, can't help but break the perfectly-okay silence. “I have heard by way of mouth that as of late the Green Clan has been causing some degree of trouble for your organization.”

Suoh exhales sharply through his nose in what could have been a sigh and cracks his eyes open, as if he had been trying to sleep. “What organization?”

“HOMRA, obviously. I seem to have forgotten that my usual manner of speech doesn’t work with you, Suoh.”

“I’d just feel better if you would talk normally.”

“So you mean for me to dictate my speech around what you would like to hear?” Munakata bristles, wants to sit up but decides against it. That might be awkward, looking down on unfazed Suoh like that. “How egocentric.”

“Hmm.”

“…”

Suoh rolls over on his side so that he is facing the other man. Munakata, still lying on his back with arms crosses neatly behind his head, observes Suoh out of the corner of his eye. He places his fingertips against the four or so inches of moss in between them and strokes it as if he were stroking a pet. Munakata in turn snorts and rolls over on his side, too. Suoh looks up with delayed timing and they meet eyes.

“What?”

“It’s just…” Munakata hesitates. “I don’t really know.”

Suoh stretches again and moves his gaze off to the increasingly dense plantation around them. This large forest isn't too far out of the way. It’s just outside of the city. No one really pays it much mind, but it’s rather nice that there are still places like this that haven't fallen victim to urbanization. Of course, there are many places like this in Japan, but hundreds of miles away from here.

He never really came out here too often. Not at all. He more or less knows it’s the same for Suoh. The man didn’t at all seem to be the type to enjoy things like this – he lived for violence, was the impression he gave off and just about everyone accepted. Munakata did, too, at first, but now he’s not so sure.

Even Munakata needs time to…escape, go somewhere truly tranquil where he doesn’t have to think about so many things at least for a while. He doesn’t forget them, of course, but at least stops his ruthless cogitations. Something tells him that in this case Suoh is no different. And in a fabric of space in time in which the conditions outside of it do not apply, surely what the two of them added up to be together could be something different. Or maybe it was that they actually _could_ add up to something together. He isn't sure that he knows the difference. He isn't sure why he’s thinking about it. All of this un-surety should vex him, but somehow it doesn’t. At least not for now.

“This moss is incredibly soft,” Munakata comments needlessly, stroking it thoughtfully the way Suoh was just doing.

Suoh huffs a little, and Munakata feels his hot breath across his face. They’re only inches apart but without a fraction of hostility radiating from either of them. Rarely ever are they this close when not in conflict. Rarely ever do they even _talk_ when not in conflict. Munakata wonders what could be so different about right now.

He sits up properly and brushes his hair back in place, Suoh surprisingly enough following suit. “Do you think this is strange?”

Suoh looks at him. “What?”

Munakata flips an index finger back and forth between them. “The way we are now. We usually get along rather rottenly, don’t you think?”

“No, I never think about it,” Suoh deadpans.

Munakata bites his lower lip. “So it could be that you are merely inconveniencing me only whenever it suits your fancy.”

Suoh lifts himself to his feet. “I just do whatever I want.”

_That will eventually be your downfall,_ Munakata would think, much later when he heard those same words. And even after that he would think that maybe Suoh couldn’t really have done anything about it anyways.

*

The two of them wound up going on a short excursion through the woods, and it was easy enough to pass the time this way. Munakata had never really met someone that quietly enjoyed spending normal time with him, and he liked that about Suoh. The man was honest enough, and like he said did whatever he wanted, so it wasn’t like he was doing this just out of some kind of conventionality or even obligation, whatever that would be for.

“Have you ever come out here with any of your friends?” Munakata breaks the silence with. He wasn’t sure if it would be rude to offhandedly refer to Suoh’s comrades at HOMRA as friends, but he assumed as much was true, at least considering Kusanagi Izumo and Totsuka Tatara.

Suoh kicks a pinecone boyishly. It flies off into the bushes nearby and startles a rabbit and several birds so that their surroundings stir up temporarily. “Well, I guess I am right now.”

Munakata smirks. “You mean to count me as a ‘friend?’”

Suoh shrugs. “Sure, why not? ‘Friend’ is perceived in a biased way, though. People don’t really think about what it actually means, or different things it could mean. But whatever, I dunno.”

Munakata raises his eyebrows. “Why, I believe what you said is actually quite true. It seems that you do have insight. A pity you don’t choose to use it more often.”

“Is that a compliment or an insult?”

“Both.”

*

Two weeks later, on another Saturday, Munakata enjoys an aimless walk downtown. He would honestly much rather be working on one of his puzzles, but decided that it would be unhealthy not to get some outside air and exercise every so often, King he was or not. (And sweltering the weather was or not.)

This downtown Shizume area isn't exactly high-class, not at all. It probably couldn’t be considered middle-class, even. But it could hardly compare to some of the _other_ definitions of downtown area he has encountered. (That’s one of the things he had gotten to fixing once he came to be Captain of SCEPTER 4, but some things just don’t change, at least not too much.) Plenty of the buildings have seen their years, and there’s no doubt the occasional drug or weapons dealer lurks in one of the many conveniently dark alleyways, but even considering that this place and the people seem rather…normal. If there is such a thing. And if there isn't, well, at least things can seem that way. It’s rather refreshing somehow.

There are many people who recognize him, point and whisper or ease away hesitantly. There are an even greater many people who pay him no mind, too occupied by whatever is currently going on around them, in their lives, or in their minds to bother looking at any other fellow passersby stepping past them on the same cracked, scorching concrete.

He takes a left, a right, and then another left before coming out in front of an abandoned building that was once a grocery store many years ago, at least considering the faded, half-there sign that reads _Hana’s Grocery_.

Leaning against it indifferently, with a cigarette stuck between his lips and donning his usual white cotton T-shirt and jeans, is Suoh Mikoto, surrounded by a small group of some of HOMRA’s leading members. Munakata doesn’t bother identifying them because he doesn’t particularly care.

Maybe he should have just stuck with his puzzles in the first place.

He walks right past them, but the others are too occupied with themselves and their King to pay him any mind, not at all unlike the many other people he has passed by this morning.

With Suoh though, it’s different. Their eyes meet, just briefly, before Suoh does nothing but apathetically re-divert his gaze to staring off in space.

Munakata keeps walking forward. He isn't going to force Suoh to speak to him. He isn't sure what he would have said, anyways.

*

When he does say something, it’s clear that his words mean nothing to Suoh.

*

The cell barracks are hauntingly quiet. It almost seems like, other than the sound of his footsteps and the gentle gradients of light that enter, that there is nothing. Not even on his face. The same can't be said of his insides. Not that that really matters. To anyone.

Munakata stands in front of Suoh’s cell, stares at him intently. The man is unapologetically sleeping. Let’s see if he can do something about that. The bars retract at his will, just another privilege of advanced technology. Too bad technology can't literally do anything.

He reaches down to grab Suoh up by the head, bashes it against the cell wall coolly and collectedly. It had to hurt, but not nearly as bad as Munakata hurts right now.

It doesn’t manage to do anything more than wake the peacefully sleeping lion. He opens his eyes, blinks slowly. “Well, look who’s here…” Blank.

Now it’s time to bring out the reasoning. He doesn’t expect Suoh to listen, but hope and expectation are two different things. You can always have one without the other. Besides, time is quite obviously running out now. It’s like a bottomless hourglass. The sand falls out slowly, one grain at a time. The sand is Suoh’s life. Or Munakata’s. Same difference. Neither mattered, at least not to Suoh.

“Suoh, let me get straight to the point. Your Weismann level is pushing its limit. If the Sword of Damocles should fall, we’ll have a repeat of the Kagutsu crater.” Graphic depictions of the possibilities flare up in his mind, and he suppresses a grimace. He lets go of Suoh’s head. Suoh sits up on the thin tatami and leans against the wall. He’s smirking. Munakata continues.

“If you insist on drawing more power from the Dresden Slates, I will have to kill you.” Yes, he is certainly not one to talk about being blank. But if he lets his despair out right now like any other normal human being would, it wouldn’t make any difference. It would be more likely to make Suoh listen even less just to spite Munakata, more than have any affect in the way of _listening._

“I have no idea what you're talking about.” Blank. To top it off, he isn't even looking at Munakata. He never really does.

His swordhand collides with the stone cold wall beside Suoh’s head, and he lowers himself so that their faces are close, more or less as close as they were on a certain peaceful Saturday not so many years ago. The difference, however, is the hostility. “I’m telling you to renounce your throne.”

Suoh gazes at him, smirk widening yet still lethargic. At least he’s looking at him. “You’re just a stick in the mud, aren't you, Munakata?”

Munakata rises back up and closes his eyes briefly, almost indignantly. “If that’s your answer, I’ll have to come up with a way to keep you locked up for life.” He wasn’t kidding. Maybe Suoh didn’t see that. Maybe Suoh didn’t care.

“Actually, there is one way to keep me locked up here forever.” He remaintains eye contact, but this time there’s something there, something fierce. Rage. He does just a good-enough job of suppressing it. (He always has. But he won't be able to for much longer…)

“You could do it, Munakata. The Blue King can keep an eye on me personally.” There’s something in his voice that’s jesting, prideful, but not in the way one would think. It hurts. It hurts with a stabbing pain.

Suoh allows Red Aura to flare up around him, so that the essence of the bright red flames radiated from his person counter that of his eyes. “Twenty-four hours a day, inside this cell. If I become violent, you can restrain me by force.”

Why does he even bother to say it?

Munakata keeps a smile across his face. Small. Cold. Fake. “The thought of having to breathe the same air as you makes me ill.” Cold. Fake. Lie.

He turns around composedly and begins to take his leave. “And besides, I’m afraid I’m quite busy. I can't spend all my time with you.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way, Munakata.” There’s something about that that sounds different, but not by much.

_If you really feel that way then WHY_ -

He doesn’t even allow himself to finish the thought let alone voice it. He pushes his glasses up on his face and keeps walking, but not before taking one last look back at Suoh. He’s already gotten back in his initial position, lying on his side with his back to Munakata. “Yeah, me too, Suoh…”

The bars close back up between them.

*

_There used to be something. There still is. But it is not the same anymore. I wonder why._

_It is no longer the same because…_

_It was burnt and frozen._

_After all of that, that ‘something’ is still there._

_It is still there, but now it is in so much pain._

*

_Firm Ice must be blue righteousness._

_Blue righteousness. Blue justice. The most important things._

_Were they really?_

_They were to the Fourth and Blue King, Captain of SCEPTER 4 Munakata Reisi._

_If ‘Reisi’ could somehow be an existence of its own, would having a very different most important thing be acceptable?_

_Hardly. An existence merely by the name of ‘Reisi’ could not be allowed._

_Vigorous Fire is the only thing that can melt Firm Ice._

_And it is the only thing that can get close to its soul._

_In turn, is it not the destiny – no, not such a pretty word could be stuck to it – the FATE of Ice to surround and extinguish Fire, no matter what the personal cost?_

_No, there is no ‘personal’ for this Firm Ice of righteousness and justice. Those two words are all it knows._

_THIS WORLD IS TOO SMALL FOR US._

*

Suoh Mikoto would have died regardless of whether or not Munakata Reisi drove his saber through the man’s chest.

The Red Sword of Damocles, had it fallen, would have destroyed all the land within a mind-blowing radius, bringing its King down with it.

This way, Suoh was the only one to die.

Munakata was the only one to be left with a broken heart.

Such a cliché is unlike him, but considering the way he feels, he can fully understand why the expression is used.

Sardonically, Suoh quite literally was left with a broken heart as well. But only literally.

But none of that matters.

Suoh Mikoto is dead.

He should be crying.

He never cries.

The snowflakes that melt on his cheeks feel like tears.

The blood that runs down his hand feels like loss.

*

 

Munakata gazes at the small gravemarker underneath his feet, near the foot of an old oak amongst the many in a large forest near the outskirts of Shizume City that has incredibly soft beds of moss.

It reads _‘Suoh Mikoto.’_

He flicks some ashes from the sentimentally symbolic cigarette sticking in his mouth. They land on the stone surface of the marker.

Mikoto isn't under the earth there, so Reisi sends his gaze up to the sky. The first snowflake of the winter falls on his cracked glasses lens.

“This world is too small for us. The world you are waiting for me in is supposed to be infinitely large, right? That is all I can hope for.”

END

**Author's Note:**

> Endnotes:   
>  I wrote this one sometime back in May. It’s a bit choppy, but looking back on it, everything gets tied together in the last section. I remember the first section being the most difficult to write – I was trying my best for it not to be OOC. But since that part was meant to be a while before all the crap between them happened, I had imagined their relationship to be amiable like that, at least in select moments.  
> And I’d like to point out that any explorations into Suoh’s mind are courtesy of Munakata, from his standpoint. I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says, and most of the time he is emotionally fraught and doing his best to hide it (Actually, writing this fic made me compare Munakata to Fai from Tsubasa, although what they are keeping inside and their ways of doing so are quite different.)  
> The two sections in italics might seem a little weird, but I meant them to be so. Maybe Munakata was in a delirium or having a nightmare. There was actually another section like that, but I cut it out because it read more like either he was on an acid trip or I was when I wrote it.  
> Oh, and FYI, “Firm Ice must be blue righteousness,” “Vigorous Fire should be red principle,” and “This world is too small for us,” among many others, can all be seen in the opening credits of episode 1 if you pause the frames and look hard enough. There are some rather interesting things, and some spoilers as well, such as, “Initial King flew away to the sky.”  
> Sorry I ramble a lot in my notes but thank you very much for anyone who read them and everyone who read the fic! Comments and kudos are appreciated!


End file.
